San Juan County
UtahSan Juan County in southeastern Utah is a stunningly beautiful area of high plateaus and deep canyons that contain the remains of at least 12,000 years of human history accessible to visitors and generally left in a natural state. The largest communities in the county–Bluff, Blanding and Monticello—are gateways to some of the most well known and heavily visited prehistoric pueblo and rock art sites and historic trails and settlements in all of Utah. In addition, the county is part of a much larger, incredibly rich, prehistoric cultural landscape that spans the Four Corners area and includes places such as Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.
Unfortunately, many of the prehistoric and historic resources in San Juan County are being loved to death by a rapidly increasing number of national and international tourists, hikers, off-highway vehicle (OHV) users and other recreationists. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Monticello Field Office (MFO)—responsible for 1.8 million acres of federal land in the county—is underfunded and understaffed and cannot keep up with archaeological site documentation, monitoring and stabilization, visitor education and law enforcement. Resultant problems include inadvertent damage to sites, purposeful vandalism and looting, collapse of structures through benign neglect and creation of unauthorized, new walking and OHV trails that further expose sites to damage.
One of San Juan County’s most well known archaeological landscapes is the 475,000-acre Cedar Mesa area, whose topographic boundaries can be defined roughly by the San Juan River on the south, Arch Canyon and its tributaries on the north, Red House Cliffs on the west and Comb Ridge on the east. Archaeologists estimate that Cedar Mesa contains 100,000 cultural resources, many of which are visually appealing, scientifically invaluable and culturally significant. But some of the most numerous archaeological sites on Cedar Mesa are visually modest pit houses—small dwellings dug partially into the ground—and food processing locations created by early agricultural people who used elaborate woven baskets instead of ceramic vessels and inhabited relatively small settlements. These people lived during an era that archaeologists call the Basketmaker period, dating from around 1000 B.C. to A.D. 750. Cedar Mesa also contains many remarkable stone houses and granaries built by later agricultural people who used pottery and sometimes lived in large settlements. Their era, referred to as the Ancestral Puebloan period, dated from around A.D. 750 to 1300. People living during both time periods, as well as thousands of years before, also created much elaborate and colorful rock art that can be seen in many places on Cedar Mesa.
An extreme example of threats to San Juan County’s cultural resources came in June 2009, when 24 people were indicted for looting and selling Native American artifacts taken without permission from Cedar Mesa, Alkali Ridge—a National Historic Landmark—and other BLM and tribal lands in the county and nearby areas. Archaeological sites in Recapture Canyon also have been impacted by the creation of unauthorized walking and OHV (specifically all-terrain vehicle (ATV)) trails and by a long history of looting. In fact, in January 2011 two men from Blanding were convicted and fined for damaging federal property when, in 2005, they illegally created an ATV trail through archaeological sites in the canyon. The National Trust is currently a consulting party, under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, for the BLM’s review of a San Juan County right-of-way (ROW) application for that ATV trail. Together with the BLM, environmentalists, recreationists, ATVers, county representatives, tribes, and other diverse stakeholders, we are working to ensure that adverse impacts to cultural resources in the canyon will be avoided if the BLM grants the ROW.
Proposals for inappropriate development also continue to threaten cultural resources in San Juan County. For example, in April 2009, the BLM included several parcels within Butler Wash—a canyon that contains a 2,025-acre archaeological district listed in the National Register of Historic Places—in an oil and gas lease sale. The National Trust for Historic Preservation (National Trust) protested that decision in May 2009 and the BLM subsequently removed the Butler Wash parcels from the sale, as well as several others in San Juan County in areas with high concentrations of archaeological sites. The National Trust will remain active in this issue, as the controversial parcels could appear again in future lease sales.
The National Trust believes that Congress can ensure that San Juan County’s authentic, stunning and accessible record of human history remains intact for visitors and researchers by protecting areas of significant cultural resources through permanent management designations and by providing the MFOwith a modest annual increase in funding for cultural resources management. The National Trust recommends a permanent increase in base funding of $200,000 for cultural resources management and $100,000 for law enforcement over the FY 2009 levels. This funding will allow the field office to document, monitor and protect cultural resources in locations experiencing high levels of recreational use, such as Cedar Mesa, before the sites are destroyed; stabilize deteriorating sites; educate visitors and enforce federal preservation laws.
The National Trust itself has provided assistance and/or funds to BLM and private organizations to help preserve archaeological sites in San Juan County. For example, in 2004, the National Trust awarded BLM a $15,000 challenge grant to stabilize Arch Canyon Ruin, a “one of a kind” Ancestral Puebloan architectural site situated at the mouth of Arch Canyon. BLM had determined that a portion of the ruin was in danger of collapsing, but lacked the money to perform the necessary stabilization work. After matching the National Trust’s challenge grant, BLM successfully completed the work in 2005. The National Trust subsequently helped BLM secure a $225,000 Save America’s Treasures grant to undertake additional work at Arch Canyon Ruin and ten other sites in San Juan County. In addition, in 2008 the National Trust awarded a $10,000 challenge grant to the Southwest Heritage Foundation to help purchase an early (ca. A.D. 750–900) Ancestral Puebloan site in Bluff, which will be used for archaeological research and education.
Bluff’s new welcome signs, sponsored by local business owners and declaring “Bluff Utah Est. 650 A.D.” say it all—San Juan County has a rich, deep, and preservation-worthy history.
Want to read more about San Juan County? Click here to download the San Juan County Fact Sheet.
Explore Cedar Mesa
